When Paths Collide
by Ranger's Secret
Summary: A group of strangers consisting of a dwarf, an elf and two dwarf/humans leave their home land to find their destiny, but what happens when their paths collide? Will they realise that their destiny is to be together or will rivalries form and all hell break loose? suck at summaries, sorry. T just to be safe :) OC/OC, OC/Fili, OC/Legolas
1. Characters

**here is just a quick description of my the characters!**

**Disclaimer! Tolkien owns EVERYTHING! besides my characters; Sannia, Clarian, Ailrien and Belethorn**

**also, can you all be perfect little hobbits and review? **

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**Sannia**: Race: Human/dwarf, birth place: Iron Hills, lived most of her life with in the walls of Rohan

Age: 37 (being half dwarf, this can be rounded off to 19 human years)

Gender: female

Info: Sannia is the only daughter of a black smith, she is full sister Belethorn and half-sister Ovian. Her father, Rovan, wants her to be less like her dwarven mother and more like other human females. She despises her father but is extremely fond of the youngest of her brothers Belethorn. Sannia wants to see what lies outside the borders of Rohan, her father has forbidden her to do so, though, it has not seemed to stop her. Is very athletic, and keeps fit by fighting with town folk.

Appearance: a little under 5 foot tall, strong with broad shoulders. Shoulder length ash blond hair and icy blue eyes, quite pale skin.

Personality: is always looking for a way to cause trouble, picks fights with people who have done nothing. She believes that this makes her seem like she is more capable than an ordinary woman, which she is. If she does not like someone, it does not go unknown. She does not like many people…

**Belethorn**: Race: Human/dwarf, birth place: Iron Hills, lives in Rohan and is a soldier of the Rohan army.

Age: 41 (calculated to 23 human years)

Gender: Male

Info: Belethorn is the second youngest in his family. He is very close to his younger sister Sannia and believes that it is his duty to protect her from any danger. He is full brother to Sannia and half-brother to Ovian. Belethorn is very fond of Rohan and its citizens and strives to protect them. He is a strong warrior and still has a lot of potential. Belethorn is very friendly but always likes to play tricks on his siblings. Sannia and Belethorn usually work together to cause mayhem to Ovian who thinks its funny and does not mind. Does not like his father.

Appearance: five foot tall, strong, broad shoulders. Brown wavy hair that reaches under his shoulders. Light blue eyes, quite square feature, a bit of stubble.

Personality: friendly, very protective of Sannia, wants to ensure the safety for the ones her cares about. Easy to get along with.

**Ailrien**

Race: Elf of Mirkwood, works with her older sister Tauriel

Age: 1083 (this is just a random guess, if she where human, she would be 19)

Gender: female

Info: Ailrien, daughter of Awilran, is a guard to Thranduil's halls. Her father has been working as a guard for as long as he can remember and when her mother died, Ailrien wanted to follow in his footsteps. Skilled when it comes to archery but is not confident with yielding a blade.

Appearance: 6 foot tall, pointed features with green eyes, like the needles on a pine tree. Hip length brown straight hair, pale skin.

Personality: ferocious fighter but feels uncomfortable with the idea of death and killing. Is very respective towards King Thranduil. Is not very open to the outside world

**Clarian**

Race: Dwarf of Blue Mountains

Age: 68 (about 20?)

Gender: female

Info: Clarien, daughter of Dwalin, works as part time helper in a toy store. She wishes to leave and help her father teach younger dwarflings to duel. Her father was going to let her until her mother Marien bluntly said that fighting is not a place for young women such as herself and that she can start yielding more than a bread knife once has moved out. She is of course, like most others would, went behind her mother's back and had lessons with her father. Very talented with an axe

Appearance: red/brown bushy hair that reaches about three inches below her shoulders. Very sturdily built and has freckles dusting her cheeks. Pale skin which contrasts with her light blue eyes

Personality: willing to help everyone, almost too willing, always finds a way to get time of work to sneak after her father to help him. She is still very rough and tough though but whoever she befriends will be her friend for ever no matter what.


	2. Chapter 1

**Hello my precious little hobbits :) ok here is the first chapter! my last fanfic was just a fluke. I really just made it up on the spot and wrote it down. This one, however has a plot! so pleasepleasepleeeeaaasssee review! it would mean so much :D so be amazing little dwarflings and read and review :)**

**Disclaimer! I am Tolkien in disguise... Just kidding! I only own my characters **

Chapter one

_Grrr._ Sannia was starving and her stomach gave her final proof. She scowled as she looked down at rain drenched shirt which clung to her much too thin belly. She needed to get food, buying some was completely out of the question seeing as her money was quite literally non-existent. Sannia sat perched on a town roof looking over the villagers walking along the cobble stone streets who were, Sannia thought, most likely running errands. Villagers, in Sannia's opinion was her reason for still being alive. They had money and/or food which she could easily get so it was a win-win situation, Sannia won both ways by getting food and money. Her father never really gave her food because since she was old enough to get a paying job she should be able to buy her own, but Sannia does not work, no one will hire a troublemaker. After a few years of becoming of age, she declared that she wanted to become a soldier like her two older brother's Belethorn and Ovian. Her father, being the two-timing git he was, immediately forbade her and said that she should be more like Ovian's mother. Ovian's mother was, to put it bluntly, a whore. She has slept with more men than she can remember (although she does make up extreme numbers so she has something to boast about). She works as tailor and gets the worst possible wages in the whole town. Sannia mother was much more respectable. She was a dwarf, and a noble one at that. She had direct connection with Dain of the Iron Hills. However, she died in battle long ago and was therefore left in the care of her father, whom she despised. The young woman mentally shook herself out of her past and locked her eyes onto a young woman who was promenading along one of the smaller cobble stone streets. She was only young, perhaps only a couple years older than Sannia had she been born fully human. The woman was carrying a basket of something that had been covered by an old grotty cloth. Sannia smirked mischievously to herself as she silently scurried along the roof top never taking her eye of the young lady until she reached the end of the small street. She leapt on to the wall that was towering at the end of the alley way and without a second thought jumped of the wall landing directly in front of the now startled woman. She let out an astonished cry and backed up a few steps. Sannia laughed at the woman's reaction and started threateningly in a run towards her. The woman clutched her basket tightly to her chest and was about to scream before Sannia had slid behind her and revealed a small pocket knife and held it towards her throat.

"Hold your tongue unless you want to lose it" Sannia sneered. _Of course,_ she thought, _I would never really do that._ Sannia has never hurt anyone beyond physical injury and she was not about to cut out someone's tongue, but it did keep her quiet.

"I just want to look under that nice little basket of yours" she continued and the woman immediately obliged. Somewhat. She dropped the basket at her feet causing the rag to come flying off. Out of the basket rolled a small loaf of bread and three eggs which, much to Sannia's disappointment, had cracked. She scowled at herself and made a mental note to grab the basket next time and ditch the target. She let the woman go and shoved her hard in the back prompting her to topple over like a small child learning to walk. She was about to grab the loaf of bread when she felt a strong hand grasp around her wrist. She gasped and attempted to swat away the unfamiliar hand but to no reward. She spun around to come face to face with a tall muscular man who was, no doubt, a soldier of Rohan. In Sannia's opinion he looked broody and rather frightening. _I don't get frightened_, Sannia kept repeating to herself with no avail. She stared at the man who was now towering over her like a giant. Sannia had to fight hard not to flinch from pain at his iron grip.

"Who are you and why are you attacking this woman?" he asked in a hushed but threating tone, which sent a wave of shivers down her spine. She thought telling the truth but she was not that stupid.

"I was attacked by this woman and merely fought back" she lied. She flinched when the grip on her arm tightened so hard that her circulation her arm may as well have stopped. He leaned in closer so his head was next to her ear, to do this he had to stoop a bit considering she was part dwarf.

"Do not tell me such lies about my wife" he hissed and with that he let go of her now slightly blue hand and pushed her to the ground. She leapt back to her feet and before he had time to react or even comprehend what was coming she had hit him square in the face. She stood there panting with adrenaline. The man straightened up and in Sannia's eyes looked even more intimidating than he did before, but that may also have been because of the blood nose which she had just caused. He glowered at her and before she could even think of running, she felt searing pain and then darkness.

When she awoke, she found herself lying in the comforts of her own bed. She did not open her eyes for she had a pounding head ache and she feared that she would feel sick if she where to check her surroundings. She lay there for a while, very much awake, and listened to what she supposed where her to brothers mumbling to each other. Upon hearing those voices she fluttered her eyes open to see that she was indeed in her own bed and with the two older brothers Belethorn (the younger of the two men) and Ovian and her father whom she very much despised. The brothers where standing on either side of her bed, Ovian holding a wet cloth in his hand that had stained blotches of blood and Belethorn looking worried. Her father had his back towards her and was instead, looking out her window. It was dark outside which meant she had been out cold for more than half the day. Little candles where lit and placed on her bedside table.

"She is waking, father!" Said Ovian and Belethorn kneeled down by Sannia's side smiling with relief. The man standing at the window turned around and looked at Sannia who was still slightly indistinct to her surroundings. Her father sneered down at her, his greasy brown hair clung to his face and the smell of alcohol was wafted through the air. He was drunk, that much was obvious. His eyes where bloodshot and his mouth was slightly agape. He stumbled towards Sannia, tripping on his own feet as he did so. Sannia was a bit more alert now of the state of her father and was not surprised to feel a hard slapacross her cheek. She lay with her head on its side, not daring to move. She heard Belethorn yell at her father in rage but took no notice of it. Instead, she took this opportunity when they argued to refresh what had happened. All she had wanted was food, was that really that hard to understand? Clearly this town of man was even more injudicious than she had first made it out to be. Sannia lay there for what could have been hours or just a few minutes and did not notice when brothers and father left. Her mind was racing with thoughts of the earlier events today and even past events. If someone were to listen closely they would almost be able to hear her mind buzzing with memories. Sannia stayed awake for half the night and slowly drifted off to sleep.

The next day when she awoke, the sun had not even reached the horizon. She had been grateful for the time she had alone last night, she had time to think to herself and not worry about how to survive. Sannia was quite proud therefor that she had concocted a very Sannia style plan. She leapt out of bead and raced around her small room as light footedly as possible. She grabbed a brown tunic from the window sill which she had set out to dry two nights ago but was damp from the rain the night before. She also grabbed two grey blue tunics from under her bed and two pairs of leggings and shoved it all into her rucksack. After she had what she needed, she ran into the kitchen and grabbed her faded red coat; which her mother had given to her; of a rusty hook alongside a sword that hung in its faded silver scabbard. She was about to walk out the door she felt a familiar hand grab her elbow. She stopped halfway and let out a dejected sigh.

"Let go, Belethorn," She said in a hushed tone, almost inaudible if Belethorn had not been standing so close. His grip did loosen but did not release her arm. Sannia sighed and turned around to face her brother. He knew what she was up to. He knew she was going to make a run for it, he was just surprised that she had not tried earlier.

"Nia, I know what you are going to do and…" he started but was cute of when Sannia stepped forward and was naught a mere inch from his face, poking a finger in his chest.

"If you really knew why then you won't try and stop me," she hissed. She loved her brother, really, she did; he was just too protective of her.

"I'm just saying that maybe you should think this through first. People will miss you…" he said, his voice failing in the end.

"No one will miss me!" Sannia said raising her voice to a loud whisper. She knew no one would miss her, this was an obvious fact. In fact, everyone in the town would be glad to be rid of her and the trouble she brought where ever she went.

"I will, Ovian will; you don't know how much you will crush our hearts if you left. Sannia, you are my best friend and nothing you will say can change that," Belethorn finished stubbornly. Sannia looked him in the eye, trying to find any hint of a lie, even though she knew her brother spoke nothing but the truth. She knew that she would be leaving all she had behind but she would also be leaving the hurt behind as well.

"I need to go Belethorn. I'm sorry, I truly am, but you know that I don't belong her. I'm sorry brother." Sannia said unable to look her brother in the eye so instead she kept her eyes to the floor. Without another word she walked out the door, tipping up her hood and swung her sword over her back.

She was walking over to the stable where the war horses stood munching away on the hay. She walked over to the end stall where a large grey horse stood. The mare looked up and saw Sannia coming towards her. Sannia always came into the stables when she had the time. She loved horses much more than people because they never judged her. They never scowled at her for stealing food. They just stood and listened. At night, Sannia would sometimes take out the grey mare; she had called her Gem; in the night and ride her around the streets. When she was little she was taught to ride, of course that was ages ago, but it's something that you don't forget on the first hand. She was about to grab the saddle of the tack rack when she heard the door to the stable swing open. Sannia practically threw the saddle back onto the rack and dove into Gem's stall. She sat there crouched in the corner hopping that she was not found. She heard the soft footsteps walking up the corridor, coming to a halt at Gem's stall. The gate swung open slowly and Sannia held her breath, expecting to be found by a guard. Instead, standing in front of her was Belethorn.

Sannia had to blink a few times to make sure that it actually was her brother. Here she was, waiting to be dragged back to her father by the ear having to explain what she was doing in the stables. Instead, Belethorn stood in front of her with a pack slung over his shoulder and his sword strapped onto his belt.

"Belethorn!" Sannia blurted, still confused over what she was seeing.

"Stating the obvious a bit aren't you?" he smirked. Sannia leapt to her feet and gaped at her brother.

"What-"

"Am I doing here" Belethorn finished Sannia's sentence. "I thought about what you said. Sannia, I know you don't belong here and there is no point in me denying it," Belethorn paused "but I know that I won't belong here if I don't have the company of my sister."

Sannia stared it her brother, smiling goofily at him. She had been hoping this might happen but never allowed herself to believe that Belethorn would leave behind his duty to Rohan's people. She was frozen to the spot, too happy to move, she just stood and stared.

"Now then. Are you just going to stand there and gawk or are we going to saddle up?" Belethorn asked as he started towards a chestnut horse that stood across from Gem. Sannia snapped out of her shocked phase and picked up Gem's saddle, saddle cloth and bridle and proceeded to tack Gem up.

"So where are you actually planning on going, sister?" Belethorn asked as he tightened his horse, Fender, girth. Sannia lead out Gem and started fastening her pack to the saddle and replied

"I want to go to Erebor"

"What?!" Belethorn cried, abandoning Fender as he waltzed out of the stall towards his sister, "Are you mad? That is ages away and in case you have forgotten, it's guarded by a fire breathing lizard!" he said, not attempting to keep his voice down. Sannia started to laugh, and said

"You're and idiot you know that don't you? I was just kidding, my plan is to go where ever the path in front of me leads. Whether it be north, south, east or west I will go there, as long as I am out of this town." She continued to chuckle whilst she mounted upon her steed. Belethorn preceded to do the same, casting a disapproving, yet amused glances towards his sister.

The rode out of the stable into the darkness of the early hours and headed towards the gate of the city. The guards that stood watch kept their keen eyes out onto the horizon and Belethorn had just turned around to ask Sannia what her plan was but only saw Gem, following Fender with no rider. Belethorn looked around wide eyed and worried, wondering what reckless things Sannia could be up to when he spotted her sneaking up on one of the guards and silently placed a cloth over his mouth. After about five seconds the guard slumped to the floor sound asleep and Sannia ran across the gate, managing to keep her balance extremely well and leapt onto the second guard and, again placed the cloth over his face, sending him into a deep sleep. She leapt down in front of Belethorn and smiled mischievously at him.

"What-"

"I soaked a cloth in a sleeping draft," Sannia said simply.

"Where did you get a sleeping draft from?" Belethorn asks dumfound.

"I made it, it seemed to come in handy when I ended up in unwanted trouble."

"I'm not even going to ask what's in it" Belethorn said as they trotted out through the gates of Rohan for the last time.

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**Yay or nay? **

**PLEASE REVIEW! next chapter will be about Clarian :D**


	3. Chapter 2

**SORRY EVERYONE! for any one who is actually reading my story I whole heartedly apologise for not updating! I have had exams to study for and assignments to complete and I have not found ANY time to write! it won't continue on like this though, soon i will (hopefully) be updating regularly :)**

**any ways, can someone, ANYONE please,please, PLEASE tell me what they think? thanks :) **

**Chapter 2**

"What are you doing Clarian?!" Marian, mother of Clarian, wife of Dwalin shrieked. Clarian was attempting to butter a slice of bread with the tip of her sword and looked up innocently to her mother. She smiled sweetly at her and asked

"Is something wrong mother?"

"Why in the name of Fundin are you jamming your father's sword into the butter bowl?" she asked hysterically.

"I was feeling a bit peckish, so I decided to grab a bite to eat before going back to the toy store" Clarian explained looking down at her slightly destroyed slice of bread.

"What have I told you about using swords?" Marien asked, fuming with rage.

"That I can yield more than a butter knife when I move out."

"Then explain, Clarien, what you are doing using a sword!"

"I couldn't find the butter knives so this is my replacement" Clarian explained, subtly trying to conceal the butter knives which she had taken earlier that where hidden in her jacket. She knew her mother was completely against her using weapons, but really, her father was and remains a great warrior! He inspires her, she wants to be like him and help younger dwarflings yield axes and swords! But all that was a mere dream, her mother made sure of that. She sent Clarian to work part time at Bofur's toy store. Don't get her wrong, she loves her mother, she can just be overprotective. However, this does not stop her going out in her breaks and spare time. Every chance she got she would be having secret lessons with her father.

"Then use a spoon, a fork, goodness me child use your tooth brush if you must! But really your father's weapons, what will he say?" Marian continued to ramble on shrilly. Just at that moment the door swung open and in comes Dwalin, dripping wet from the rain and trailing mud on the stone floor. He strolls over to where his wife and daughter stood, Clarian looking more amused than her mother who was quite possibly as red as a beetroot.

"What is goin' on 'ere?" Dwalin asked eyeing his daughter suspiciously. Clarian was still holding the sword which he had given her (without Marian's knowledge, of course) and was now happily munching away on a very dishevelled piece of bread.

"You can handle our daughter! She is just too much," Marian wailed as she stormed out of the house.

"Gosh that woman is emotionally ill" Clarian said through a mouth full of bread.

"That's yer ma ye talking about lass," Dwalin said sternly "but I 'ave to agree with you on that though" he finished off in an under tone and Clarian laughed.

"So what are ye doin' with that sword there eh?" Dwalin asked eyebrows raised. Clarien told her father the story with some actions to go along with it and in the end they were both roaring with laughter and covered in bread crumbs and butter and were both attempting to butter their own slices of bread.

After they had their little, um, cooking session, father and daughter where sitting on the floor eating the remainders of their bread and chatting amongst themselves.

Once they had finished the entire loaf of bread (they had used butter knives to butter the rest of their slices) Dwalin shuffled closer to Clarian and grabbed her hand.

"Clarian, I have something very important to tell you," he started and Clarian looked at her father and nodded for him to continue. "Thorin, Balin and I, among a few others have discussed about going on a quest. It has not been decided yet but a company of dwarves are going to go on a quest to reclaim Erebor." Dwalin said this all in one breath and looked into his daughters eyes. She stared back at him and after a moment, leapt onto her father and gave him a great big hug.

"Of course I will come with you! And I bet Fili and Kili are going too! And Bofur," she said smiling broadly. This was not, of course, what he had been trying to get across though. He released himself from her grasp and stood up.

"What I'm tryin' to say is, you need to stay here with your mother lass." He said solemnly. Clarian jumped to her feet and backed away a bit.

"What do you mean? I'm coming with you, I have grown up on the tails of Erebor and its great vast treasure and the history it holds, I am coming on this quest!" she yelled. Dwalin closed the space between them in one giant step and spat

"You are not! You are going to stay here and I don't care if I need to tie you here, you are going to stay. This quest is dangerous and there may be a chance that I won't return! So you will stay and I will come back once we have reclaimed the mountain!" he yelled back, his temper rising.

"So you admit that you are going on a quest? You just admitted, without even meaning to, that it has been decided? You were just going to abandon me here whilst you skip away to our true home without even telling your own daughter? How dare you!"

"Abandon? Ye mean not risking yer life! Yer ma needs ye here lass and like it or not, ye will be stain' and you will not complain anymore 'bout it," Dwalin snarled and left the room ending the conversation.

It was late in the night now, Dwalin had still not returned from when he left and Clarian started to regret making him angry. Usually if they quarrelled, it only lasted for about five minutes, this has gone for over four hours. Clarian waited until her mother went to bed and snuck out of her room. She was clad in a dark grey, almost black cloak that she had made purposely to camouflage. She crept out the door and started down the cobble stone streets, her bare feet patting against the cool stones. She was heading towards Thorin's house. Clarian guessed that if this quest was indeed to take place then they had to plan somewhere, and what better place to do that at the house of the rightful king under the mountain. The air was cool against her cheeks and she could see her own breath shining silver in the moon light. Whilst Clarian walked, she started to think about what would happen when her father left, when Bofur left, what would happen then? She relied on her job to not only get money to pay of her living but purely to have something to do. And what of her friends FÍli and KÍli? They were and still are like brothers to her, if they died then she would be lost in life, the same goes for her father, Bofur and her uncle, Balin. A stray tear rolled down her cheek and wiped it away with her knitted gloves. She walked for another ten minutes and soon enough she reached Thorin's house. Clarian flipped up her hood and crept around the side of the house and from inside she heard voices of many dwarves including her fathers. Kneeling down under the window sill from the room they were in she pressed her ear against the wall and listened. At first she only heard many muffled voices and is sounded as if they were arguing. The next she heard was Thorin's booming voice silencing all the dwarves.

"We will be leaving tomorrow. To have any hope of getting to the mountain in time we will need to leave as soon as possible and if that means leaving now then so be it!" he said and there seemed to be an uneasy silence in the room.

"What about my toy store?" piped in Bofur and Clarian smiled. Bofur's toy store meant the world to him, it was so like him to be worrying about that in the first hand.

"What about my family? Gimli can barely even walk yet, I can't just leave him" it was Gloin who spoke this time and Clarian could tell that he was not too keen in this quest.

"Wait until I tell Gimli you said that, he is not much younger than me!" a young voice pitched in and Clarian could tell it was Kili. _Kili gets to go and not me?!_ Clarian thought to herself completely flabbergast.

As they continued to argue amongst themselves, Clarian crept away silently and once she was out of ear shot, sprinted back towards her house. She ran into her house and strait into her room, not caring if she wakes her mother or not. Clarian got dressed for travel and quickly packed an old rucksack with things that she needed like food, water, warm clothes, some ointments for wounds such as burns, rashes and open wounds. When she was done, she went over to her dresser and grabbed a necklace that her mother had given her. It was thin, black stone and on it was carved a leaf of a fern tree. Clarian cannot remember when she got it, she can only remember that her mother said it had been passed down from her grandmother and had been made by her grandfather who had died in battle long ago. She tied it securely around her neck and traced a finger along the leather that the token was attached to down her neck and onto the cool stone. After a short moment, she shoved her bag under her bed and crept under her blankets falling into a reclusive sleep.

When she awoke the next morning, the sun had yet to rise on the horizon. She leapt out of bed and reached under her bed to grab her previously packed bag. She wrapped her fingers around the soft leather pack and yanked it out. Fastening the pack around her shoulder she ran outside as quietly as she could and, being as silent as possible, she went around the back of the house to where her dark bay pony, Snip stood grazing on some hay. Snips ears perked up when he spotted Clarian walking towards him holding a bright red apple.

"Sorry for waking you early Snip," Clarian said stroking her horse's dark main. "I bought you an apple just to make it up to you though!" Snip bit the apple in half, munching quite happily away at his sweet treat. Not a moment had passed when Clarian heard multiple heavy footsteps on the worn dirt path approaching from around the house. Her breath caught in her throat and for a moment she stood completely still. That was until she saw the shadow of her father approaching and without even thinking, she leapt into the mound of hay, and not a second later Dwalin and her uncle, Balin had rounded the corner. Clarian did not dare to breathe in case her father found her and she desperately prayed for Valar to conceal her.

"Have you told Clarian?" Balin asked, picking up form a previous conversation which Dwalin obviously had tried to avoid because he let out a saddened sigh.

"Ay"

"And?" Balin urged for his brother to continue.

"And she lost it. She first expected to come, then the lass realised that it wasn't going to happen and she exploded like a loose cannon." He said and Balin sighed.

"She is a good woman, brother. She has a good heart and her mind is in the right place, of course she would want to come and having grown up with a warrior as a father, it's obvious why she wants to come along."

"Why?" Dwalin asked, almost begging to know why his daughter wanted to put her life in danger.

"She wants to be like you, brother" Balin finished. At this moment Clarian had tears prickling her eyes and she stood up from the hay. Her father and uncle drew their weapons but lowered them almost instantly when they saw it was Clarian.

"I'm sorry da," She said through dry sobs and she ran forward to hug her father. "I just wanted to help reclaim your home, I never meant to get mad or to get you upset. I just want to be like you and help." At this Balin smiled and patted his nieces shoulder. Dwalin seemed somewhat shocked at first but was soon returning the embrace and was lifting her of the ground placing her on his hips like a mother holds a toddler. Clarian had her head tucked into her father's fur jacket, but had calmed down after her little episode.

"Na, I'm sorry too. I should 'ave known that ye would want to help. You get that form ye mother,' Clarian chuckled in agreement, 'but ye get yer thick head from me lass,' Dwalin finished putting down his daughter. They stared at each other for a while, father to daughter, and after a while Clarian rushed forward and hugged him again. Dwalin was properly shocked this time, neither of them where highly fond of such close contact and, with his mouth slightly agape in confusion turned to Balin who was chuckling merrily away at the sight.

"I'm going to miss you father" Clarian whispered and now, Dwalin looked more confused than ever. He softly pushed away from the hug and looked at her.

"What are ye-?"

"Just be safe on this journey alright?"

"I will be as long as you are" Dwalin said shrugging

"Of course, nothing happens here so I'm sure I will be" she said in an _I-thought-it-was-obvious _sort of way. Balin chuckled and Clarian looked over to her uncle.

"What?" she asked musing over why Balin was acting so merry in such a touching moment.

"For being an eavesdropper, you're not very good at listening," Her uncle said walking forward to where she stood, "You are coming, that was decided last night." Clarian's jaw dropped and her eyes widened in glee and, once her mind had processed what she heard she punched the air and let out a jubilant laugh. Whilst Clarian was jumping around in happy hysterics Dwalin looked to his brother.

"Well she wouldn't have heard that if it was last night," he said.

"Brother, when will you ever realise that your daughter is you?" Balin said in an exasperated tone. Dwalin looked blanked faced towards his brother and shrugged and Balin sighed.

"Of course she was there last night, how else did she know that we would be leaving to day?" Balin said leaning over to his brother so he could talk in a more hushed tone as they watched Clarian leap, spin and cartwheel around in joy. The brothers laughed and Dwalin shook his head in amusement.

Clarian had settled down now and was saddling up Snip when she finally remembered something, or rather some_one_ and drew in a sharp intake of breath.

"Does mother know?" She asked her father hysterically. He froze midway through attaching his pack to the back of the saddle and was momentarily lost for words. "Father?"

"Let's just say she hasn't forgotten how to use a butter knife." Clarian was confused at first but then she saw a split in his jacket and she guessed her mother had thrown a knife in his direction. She laughed merrily.

"I'm going to go say farewell" she said when finished tacking up and skipped of towards the house.

"Mother!" Clarian called as she slammed open the door, "Where are you?" from around the corner came her mother whom had clearly been crying prior to when she came in. Marien stood for a while and stared puffy eyed at her daughter, soaking up her every feature form her freckled face to her bushy, brown hair. Clarian expected her to rush forward and hug her or scowl at her telling her she is not allowed to leave but Marien, however, did not do either. She calmly walked forwards and motioned for her daughter to turn around. Clarian looked confused but did as her mother asked. She felt Marien's smooth hands wrap something around her neck and soon felt that it was something soft, most likely leather. Marien tied it securely around her daughter's neck and Clarian felt something cool fall against her chest where the object had fallen to. From under her shirt she pulled up a small token made of sapphire on it was her name, engraved neatly upon it. Clarian turned around to face her mother, whom had started to tear up again.

"Just promise me one thing, Clarian," her mother started, "promise to… to come back?" it came out as a question more than a request. Clarian looked form her mother to her necklace and gave a flimsy nod. That small gesture was enough for her mother to burst into a fresh wave of tears. Both mother and daughter embraced and Marian placed a kiss atop of her daughters head.

"Go now, your father is probably waiting," her mother said wiping her eyes with her sleeve and without another word, Clarian walked out the door to join her father who was already on his pony and was holding snip.

"Ye ready to leave lass?" Dwalin asked

"Definitely," she replied and Dwalin nodded. As Dwalin, Clarian and Balin rode of, Dwalin turned around to take one last glance at his wife who was standing sobbing silently in the door way. He gave a weak smile and regretfully turned back around to ride of to join the company alongside his brother and daughter.

When they reached the out skirts of the city, Clarian saw a small group of dwarves assembled on their ponies and immediately recognised her three best friends, Fili, Kili and Bofur. With a grin tugging the corners of her mouth, she squeezed snip into a steady trot towards them and Fili was the first to recognise her.

"Clarian!" He cried out in glee and dismounted his pony quickly followed by Kili who was laughing happily.

"Good morning!" She said as she pulled Snip to a stop and leapt off. She led Snip over to her friends and beamed at them. "So, this is it, we are finally leaving ay?"

"We must first going to pick up our burglar, Mister Boggins," Said Kili stumbling on the name and Clarian sniggered.

"Alright listen up now," came a deep rumbling voice that belonged to Thorin. Everyone looked to him and listened, "As you know, I am not going to be traveling with any of you. However I need some of you to split up and get supplies. Dwalin," said person straightened up," I need you to get more food supplies, Balin, Bofur, can you assemble the rest of the company that is not here yet," he sounded mildly annoyed at that and Clarian looked around and noticed that at least half the people that where at the meeting (which, she was not invited to) where not here. "Fili, Kili and Clarian, you don't have any errands, you can go straight to master Baggin's house. The three Friends smiled and Fili pated Clarian on the back making her topple forwards into Kili who laughed and the rest of the company let out amused smirks besides Bofur who let out a bark of laughter.

Fili, Kili and Clarian mounted their ponies, said their farewells and started on their journey. They had only travelled for half the day when Kili started to complain about being bored. Clarian rolled her eyes and Fili moaned for they both know that the rest of the journey, Kili will not stop complaining until he becomes, to put it simply, amused.

"Well why don't we play a game?" suggested Fili and both Clarian and Kili nodded in agreement.

"How about 'I See'" suggested Clarian and before they had time to vote who was going to start, Kili said in a sing song voice,

"Alright, but I'm going to win"

"Well then, why don't you go first?" Fili chuckled at his brother's surety.

"Fine, I will," Kili said with his nose slightly in the air and he started to scan his surroundings.

"We don't have all summer Kili," Clarian teased, poking her tongue out at her friend.

"Ooh I got a good one," Kili exclaimed, cleared his voice and started, "I see, better than thee, something beginning-"

"Grass"

"How did you know brother?" Kili asked slightly put out.

"Because that's the same word you use all the time, my turn. I see, better than thee, something beginning with H."

"Hill?"

"No"

"Horse?"

"They're ponies Kili, no"

"House?"

"Do you see any houses around, Clarian?" Fili asked, cocking and eyebrow. They were all silent for a while, Clarian and Kili deep in thought when Clarian finally said slowly,

"Horizon?" it had come out as a question but was satisfied when Fili nodded. "Yes!'"

"No need to boast," came Kili's voice and Clarian remembered that her friend was not to fond of losing so she quickly continued, "I see, better than thee, something beginning with B"

"Bark?" asked Kili and, even though it wasn't correct she nodded and he punched the air in delight.

They kept playing like this for a while, every time getting more and more difficult as they were using more difficult words like hock (part of the horse's leg) or eye brows. In the end, Kili, surprisingly enough, had won by a mile but before he had time to celebrate they had reached a small town.

"Do we need to stop here for anything?" asked Kili and Fili raised his hand.

"I need to sharpen my blades, I'm hoping to find a decent blacksmith so I can use his tools" he explained and the two nodded. They set of towards the town and dismounted in front of a small stable and a young boy came running out looking up at them. Clarian crouched down to be level with the boy and politely asked,

"Can we speak to the owner of the stable please?" and the little boy nodded and ran into the run down stalls. Not a moment later a large, greasy looking man came out and Clarian wrinkled her nose at the foul smell protruding from him. He had one lazy eye and with it he darted his glance between the three of them.

"Wanted to _Hup_ talk to me," he hiccupped and the smell of alcohol was strong and vile.

"We want to know het costs of keeping out ponies here for a couple of hours," Fili said stepping forward and grudgingly held up three fingers the dwarves grabbed out a silver coin each and handed it to the man who led their ponies into the stall.

After that, Fili went to go find a blacksmith whilst Kili and Clarian went to a small tavern called 'The White Rabbit' to grab a bite to eat. When they went inside the tavern Clarian immediately picked up the scent of sweaty men and dirt. However, when overwhelming smell passed, she noted the pleasant wafts of fresh bread, ale and spices. Her stomach churned for food and she and Kili chose one of the empty tables next to an open window and a young waitress came up to the two of them.

"Can I take your order?"

"Just some milk and bread," Clarian said and the waitress gave her a funny look but it was clear her eyes where for someone else. She had her eyes fixed on Kili and he was blushing furiously.

"I'll have the same," he said, quickly waving away the waitress. When she had left Clarian coughed and gave her friend a mocking look.

"Shut up, you" he said and Clarian could not help but laugh. Once they ate and had bought a small loaf for Fili, they met up with him at the same, run down stables where the ponies had been left to rest. They thanked the man for looking after the horses, _even though_, Clarian thought to herself, _he was probably too drunk to realise the world was spinning._ Soon they were on the road again and Fili was quite happily boasting about his sharpened swords and daggers.

"Stop looking so disappointed Clarian," he started when she had let out a sigh, not of disappointment, but frustration (clearly Fili hadn't picked that up) and he continued, "if you behave on this journey I might even let you polish them" he finished of smugly. Clarian grabbed a branch that was in front of her and whilst Fili was busy lifting his nose in the air, she pulled it back and let go, sending the branch right into his face. Both she and Kili roared with laughter as Fili begrudgingly pulled out a leaf from his mouth. Fili glared at the back of his friend but kept his mouth shut for the rest of the trip.

After a bit more than a day travel they finally reached The Shire. The Shire, in Clarian's opinion, was a cute little village but far, far too neat for her liking. They roamed the little streets of hobbits, trying to find the right door and only once the son had set did they find a round green door with a symbol on it that could only be the one that they were meant find.

"Finally, we are here, I'm starving," Clarian sighed as they all dismounted, leaving their ponies untacked in Bilbo's front garden. As they approached the door they checked the symbol, just to make sure they were at the right house and once they all were certain, Fili knocked. They all heard the door creak and behind the door stood a little hobbit, almost an entire foot smaller than any of the dwarves and, in Clarian's perspective, he looked very displeased to see them, almost as if he was not expecting them.

"Fili,"

"And Kili,"

"And Clarian,"

"_At your service"_


	4. Chapter 3

~Writing in _Italics _is elvish~

Chapter 3, An Awkward day for Ailrien

Ailrien was exhausted. Well, as exhausted as she could get being an elf. She had spent all day going on a wild goose chase, trying to hunt down the siders that were invading Mirkwood. She marched along the narrow bridge leading to the kingdom. Surrounding her, walked the rest of her scouting group and they all looked as frustrated and infuriated as her. If Ailrien hadn't known any better, she would have thought the wretched spiders came back to life seconds after being killed, considering how many there where. As they entered through the doors, the leader, Tilthendir, left the group to discuss the vile inhabitants of Mirkwood with the head guard. Ailrien was let off duty and, as quickly as she could, she sprinted after Tilthendir.

"_What are you doing Ailrien?" _Tilthendir asked as she went back to a walk beside him. Ailrien did not like Tilthendir, not in the slightest. He was, in Ailrien's opinion, greedy, self-centred, not to mention he thought of her as a disparate elf.

"_I'm going to go see my sister, goodness me Tilthendir, have some common sense," _Ailrien said, looking straight ahead down the corridor. Tilthendir wanted to argue but they had arrived to the training grounds and without even attempting to be polite, Tilthendir pushed her aside and stepped through the door, entering the vacant training grounds. The only people to be seen where Tauriel and a younger elf, whom Ailrien did not know the name but recognised him as being one of Tauriel's students. The two waited patiently for Tauriel and the other elf to finish their discussion and after a short while, the young elf nodded curtly to Tauriel, bid her fare well and left. Tauriel started towards the two gracefully and Ailrien threw herself towards her sister, giving her a strong hug and Tauriel laughed a soft, airy laugh.

"_Ailrien, it's been a while since I have had time to see you," _Tauriel laughed as she gently pushed away from her sister. Tilthendir shifted around awkwardly and Tauriel looked at him acknowledging him courteously.

"_What news do you bare, Tilthendir?"_ Tauriel asked seriously.

"_The spiders are growing in number," _Tilthendir informed stupidly and Tauriel sighed.

"_I already know that," _Tauriel said and Ailrien cleared her throat gaining the attention of both the elves. Tilthendir sneered at her, hating the fact that she, according to him, rudely interrupted.

"_The spiders seem to be in greater number in the south, I believe that their source is most likely south of Mirkwood,"_ Ailrien started and Tauriel seemed considerably more interested in the information that her sister was giving her than what she got from Tilthendir and urged her to continue. "_I believe that if we are to get rid of them we should-"_

_"Kill the source of them,"_ Tauriel finished for her and she turned back to face Tilthendir, "_You may take your leave now, Tilthendir, I'm sure there is more mindless work for you to do, rather than provide me with useless information."_ Ailrien sniggered and tried to hide her face behind a long section of hair that cascaded from her head and Tilthendir flushed a furious shade of red. He glared at the two and with a quick sort of head spasm, which Ailrien took as a pathetic attempt to give a polite nod, he took of through the door and down the now empty corridor. The two sisters turned to each other and laughed.

"_That was brilliant!" _Ailrien said through tears of laughter.

"_Why thankyou, I must say I have never been too fond of that elf" _

_"Who is?"_ Ailrien said in an undertone. After the two siblings had their laugh, Tauriel and Ailrien discuss the vile creatures that infest Mirkwood. They talk over all the matters that could be the reason for the sudden appearance of the spiders. Whilst Ailrien was telling her sister that the spiders where cursed, older elflings started pouring into the room, ready to learn and train to join King Thranduil's Army when they get of age.

"_Well, you seem to be busy, and I really should go out to practice my archery"_ Ailrien said and Tauriel smiled and bided her sister farewell before she strolled away towards the archery constituency.

When she reaches archway that leads outside to a large archery course she sees her best friend, Lilieth, standing under a tree, fixing the fletching on one of her arrows. Ailrien runs gracefully towards her and Lilieth looks up and waves. Lilieth was beautiful, even for elf standards. She had long, wavy hair that was a light wheat colour. With fine pointed features and deep green eyes that sparkled like emeralds in the light, she made most other elleths look common. Not ugly by any means, but not many elves could really be compared to Lilieth. She shot Ailrien a genuine smile and Ailrien came to a halt in front of her, brown hair flying around her.

"_I thought you would be here"_ Ailrien beamed as she started checking the tightness of her bow string.

"_Where else would I be?" _Lilieth laughed finishing of her fletch work. The two women, being satisfied with their weapons, started towards the other side of the archery field that was currently unoccupied. Once they reached the far end, they took up their stance and practiced shooting. After about half an hour, it started to become competitive between the two friends.

"_I bet I have a better aim than you," _Ailrien smirked and Lilieth laughed.

"_Is that a challenge?"_ Lilieth asks and her friend gives her a knowing grin.

"_You know me to well," _Ailrien said in mocked emotion, "_We get one arrow, whoever gets closest to the target, wins," _She finished.

"_What shall our target be?"_ Lilieth asked and Ailrien unsheathed her dagger and walked towards two trees that stood a little while away. In the bark of the trees she carved out a little circle, no larger than the nail of her thumb. Once she had done the same to both trees, she jogged back to where her friend stood and sheathed her dagger again.

"_You see the two marks I made on those trees over there?"_ She asked, pointing to the trees that stood about 60m away and Lilieth nodded, "_whoever can get closest to the target, will win,"_ Lilieth nodded and both of them took their stance. Ailrien focused on her target and slowed her breathing to a soft, steady pace. Everything was silent, the whole world seemed to stop as both the girls let their arrows fly at the same time. The _twang _of the stings seemed to be emphasised and everything seemed to go in slow motion. Then, in almost no time at all, the arrows embedded themselves into the tree. They lowered their bows and looked at the arrows, silently comparing them. None of them had hit their target but both were ridiculously close. After a few seconds Lilieth let out a cheer of delight, she had won by about two cm. before she had time to bathe in her glory, two arrows went flying between the two girls, who both let out surprised gasps and looked at the two identical arrows that now had been implanted right onto both of the targets. The snapped their heads to where the arrows had come from and came face to face with Legolas, the prince of Mirkwood.

"_I don't mean to be intrusive, but I think I won," _he said smirking, making both of the girls blush slightly. They both curtsied dipping their heads, as if to hide their faces. "_Who shot the arrow to the left?" _he asked, looking as Ailrien's loosing arrow. Said elf shifted uncomfortably and Legolas smiled at her.

"_Do not be ashamed, if you want I can help you?" _He smiled kindly and she nodded gratefully. "_How rude of me, I have not yet asked your names!" _He exclaimed.

"_I am Ailrien, your highness,"_ she said dipping her head in respect and Legolas held up his hand and said,

"_Please, call me Legolas,"_ He said and Ailrien smiled at him. _She's quite beautiful_ he thought to himself but quickly mentally slapped himself. "_And you are?"_

_"My name is Lilieth, I probably should go, I don't want to be intrusive when you are helping my friend, fare well Prince Legolas, Ailrien," _she gives her friend a knowing look and skips of with a smile on her face. Legolas looks at Ailrien and asks her to take up her stance with her bow, without an arrow. She does as she is told and she can almost feel Legolas' eyes studying her. After a while she feels his chest against her back and his hands over her own, now Ailrien could not help but blush furiously.

"_You have a nice stance," _he says in her ear and Ailrien felt a shiver go down her spine, "_Just raise your arm a bit more and don't focus so much on the target alone, I can see your eyes wavering only to the object. Try to also focus on where you draw the arrow to, raise your hand slightly, use your cheek as your anchor,"_ Ailrien was doing everything she was told to do at the best of her ability but found it hard to focus with her back against the prince's chest. When Legolas thought her stance was perfect, Ailrien felt the heat of his body leave and she let out a sigh of disappointment and she could have sworn Legolas let out a small chuckle. _Wait, why did I sigh? Pull yourself together! And did he just laugh?! Or was it a cough? Concentrate woman! _Ailrien was mentally screaming to herself. Soon, Legolas was standing in front of Ailrien with her quiver. He handed it to her and she thanked him, hoping she was not as red as she thought she was.

"_Now, doing what I said before, I think that you should try and fire again,"_ he said and gave her a warm, encouraging smile. Ailrien grabbed an arrow and notched it into position. She raised her bow and, doing what she was instructed to do before, she took aim at the tree. She held her breath and let go, firing her arrow directly towards her target. The tip of the arrow lodged itself just a few millimetres away from Legolas' and she lowered her bow, looking very pleased with herself.

"_Well done! A great improvement,_" Legolas said wrapping one arm around Ailrien's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. Ailrien gaped slightly at Legolas' friendly affection, but again, was as red as a tomato. _Why am I so relaxed around this elleth? I'm supposed to be a prince! Why is this one girl any different from others, _Legolas thought to himself. Ailrien's thoughts where on quite a different track compared to his though._ Oh gosh, Prince Legolas has his arm wrapped around me! I think I might actually faint, I must be dreaming! Oh my, I'm actually going to faint, just keep breathing, that's the key, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, nope not worki-_ her thoughts where cut of as she, quite ungracefully, fainted in the prince's arms.

She was only out for about a minute and soon she fluttered her eyelid open to come face to face with the prince who was leaning over her. Immediately she wished she had not opened her eyes and she yet again, felt the heat rise in her cheeks. The prince, much to her embarrassment, had a vivacious smirk and was trying to hold in his laughter.

"_Did my presence over whelm you, Ailrien?_" he asked and Ailrien turned her head to the side, allowing part of her hair to cover her face and Legolas let out a hearty laugh. He gracefully got to his feet and held out his hand to Ailrien, who was still lying on the ground. She accepted the offer and was pulled to her feet so effortlessly, it was as if she weighed nothing. Not being physically prepared to be practically lifted off the ground she was pulled of balance and fell towards the prince's chest. To stop her from losing her balance more, he warped his arm around her and steadied her on her feet. _Oh my gosh! This has to be the most obdurate day of my life! _Ailrien thought to herself as she desperately tried to hide her face. When she did so, she felt his finger under her chin and he lifted her head so she was looking straight at him.

"_Why hide such a beautiful face behind a curtain of locks?" _He asked in a quiet voice, "_Such beauty shouldn't need to hide like a flower in amongst the snow."_

_"I'm just one petal amongst many, nothing special. I wouldn't say hidden, I am just a scout," _She said and her spine shivered at his gentle touch. She was shocked when he started laughing and when he replied,

"_You are too modest! Please, do come have dinner tonight, my father loves meeting my friends," _

_"Oh I don't think that is necess-" _

_"But it is, you are my friend and I would be very glad if you were to accept," _he said and she was not able to keep a smile of her face. She agreed and he organised to meet her at the archery grounds for him to escort her before the moon rises in the sky. They bid farewell and Ailrien walked away with a spring in her step.

She sprinted all the way to where Lilieth lives and knocked on her door. Lilieth opened immediately and pounced on her.

"_I was waiting for you to come! Tell me everything, I want to hear it all!"_

So Ailrien spent the remaining time telling Lilieth all about how intimate the prince was being, how she fainted and how she was invited to dinner with him. At this point Lilieth squeaked in delight and the girls where giggling like young elflings.

"_We must get you ready! Oh what are you to wear? And what about your hair? It has pine needles all through it," _Lilieth said leaping to her feet and grabbed a brush out of a draw. She threw it to Ailrien who caught it and continued shrilly "_Brush your hair on the way to your place, we need to get you ready!"_

They sprinted through the halls of the kingdom and soon arrived outside a dark green door. Lilieth pushed the door open and hastily dragged Ailrien in after her. Ailrien sat on a chair in front of a water basin and continued to drag the bristly brush through her hair. Lilieth went to a cupboard and started scanning through all her friend's clothes. Lilieth knew what she was looking for. She wanted something nice but not to formal. Then she saw something that caught her eye. It was an emerald green dress with marron thread that had been carefully woven into a beautiful leafy pattern along the hem of the hems and around the waist. The sleeves where simple and only reached two inches above the elbow and where narrow at the top, wide at the bottom. It was perfect.

"_This is the dress, now for your hair,"_ She said smiling. Ailrien nodded in agreement and started to braid her hair into a thin circlet braid that went right around her head, ending at the back. Lilieth was chattering away but her mind drifted to more morbid thoughts. What if the king doesn't like her? Or what if she made a fool of herself and spilled wine or even worse fainted? She mentally shook herself out of her trail of melancholic thoughts. _No. No more fainting for today, once is enough_ she thought blocking out her likely outcomes.

Once she was completely ready she stood up and looked over at Lilieth who looked as if she was about to tear up.

"_My dear Ailrien, so grown up and soon to be courted by the prince," _She said half mocking half serious.

"_Shut up, he is not courting me, we only met today! We are friends, nothing more,"_

_"Not just yet anyways,"_ Lilieth said winking and Ailrien pushed her friend playfully. "_You should get going, if you don't want to be late," _She said and bid her goodbye and good luck before leaving her alone in her room. Ailrien sighed and left her room, walking down the empty corridors.

Once she reached the archery grounds she saw that it was, much like the halls of Mirkwood, vacant. She walked out to middle of the course and stood there waiting patiently for the prince.

"_How odd my life has become in a matter of a day," _she started to herself, sitting down on the ground, stretching her legs out and continued, "_a lowly elf like me waiting for the most handsome prince there ever was to come and escort me to dinner,"_

"_I wouldn't call you a lowly elf, but I can agree that I am the most handsome,"_ a familiar voice came from behind her and she leapt to her feet. There was an awkward silence and Ailrien looked to the ground, shuffling her feet. Legolas cleared his throat and held out his arm,

"_Shall we?"_ She accepted and they both, arm in arm, started up towards the royal diner. As they were walking, Ailrien started to feel very nervous. She was convinced that she would do something to displease the king or the prince. Legolas clearly noticed that she was uncomfortable and stopped.

"_Are you alright?"_

"_I'm fine,"_ She replied, trying to sound more convincing than she felt.

"_That would be a nice answer but I don't think that is a very truthful one," _he said, giving her a piercing look. She let out a sigh and looked away.

"_I am nervous," _she said quietly.

"_You have no need to b-"_

_"Yes I do!" _She said raising her voice, "_I am dining with some of the most powerful, noble elves of all time! I have reason to be nervous, you highness. I am uneasy, because I fear that I am to make either a fool of myself or to make myself into a disgrace! I have spent all day since the invite worrying about everything that could and possibly will go-"_ Ailrien was silenced by her frantic rant when Legolas placed two fingers on her lips, silencing her.

_"Stop your mouth yabbering on about irrelevant things, none of that will happen, you could never look like a fool even if you tried," _he said encouragingly.

"_Not even if I faint?"_ she asked, a grin tugging at her lips and Legolas laughed a hearty laugh.

"_Not even if you faint," _he held out his arm again and she accepted and they started down the halls once more, "_Also, please do not refer to me as your highness, I am your friend, not your ruler." _And with that, they arrived outside the dining hall. They both entered and Ailrien gasped at the beauty of the room. The celling was tall and the room itself was long and wide. In the middle of the room there was an elegant, oval table with grand dishes baring foods of great riches. The goblets that stood on the table where delicately designed and Ailrien could smell the pleasant smell of the finest wine that was being poured into glasses. Around the table sat six elves, one of which she recognised as the great elven king himself. She was too busy taking in all the detail of the place that she almost forgot she was holding onto Legolas' arm.

"_Do you wish to eat tonight, or would you prefer standing around watching?"_ Legolas asked amused and she snapped out of her trance and nodded. They walked towards the table and he pulled up a chair for Ailrien was sat down, felling slightly tense. Legolas sat across from her, next to Thranduil. Thranduil had always slightly intimidated her. He was a great ruler, but she had always felt apprehensive of him and his unyielding looks. Thranduil caught her staring at him and his gaze held hers, daring her to keep looking until she finally, looked away.

"_Let me introduce you to everyone! Ailrien, meet my dear friends, Mitrith, Lenthindir, Alloleth, Marius and Gollendir," _as he said all his friends names, he pointed to each elf and she found that she was perched between Marius and Gollendir. "_Father, this is Ailrien, she is Tauriel's sister,"_

_"It is always a pleasure to meet my son's new friends,"_ he said nodding his head curtly.

"_Thankyou, your highness, but the pleasure is all mine," _Ailrien said, trying to be as formal and polite as possible. This earned a laugh from the king which greatly surprised her. She raised her eyebrows and looked at Legolas, wondering if she had done something wrong.

"_Please, lady Ailrien, there is no need for such formalities," _He said, taking a swig of wine. Marius grabbed the wine jug and offered to pour her a glass, which she gratefully accepted.

After a while of drinking, eating and talking, Ailrien felt much more comfortable around these noble elves. She also found that Thranduil had trouble holding his wine. Ailrien was surprised that the king had not spilt on himself when he broke out multiple times in roars of laughter. Once they had finished their dinner, the conversation turned to Ailrien.

"_Ailrien, how is it that you met my dear friend?" _Lenthindir asked, as he swung his feet onto the table.

"_At the archery field, he was helping me practice," _She said, looking knowingly at Legolas, remembering the awkward moments that had happened.

"_And now you must be the greatest archer of all the land!" _Gollendir roared next to her, raising his goblet high above his head, "_To Ailrien, the greatest-"_

_"And Prettiest!"_ broke of Marius on the other side of her who clapped her on the back raising his own goblet and Gollendir continued, in his same loud voice,

"_Archer in all of Mirkwood!" _Ailrien laughed and the elves around her started cheering, even Thranduil joined in, clanking his wine glass with the rest of the elves. They all took a long mouth full of wine, but Ailrien kept chugging down the sweet wine until her goblet held not a single drop left in it. The elves cheered again and now it was Thranduil who downed his glass. She looked at the king in surprise and he lowered his goblet, cocked an eyebrow and slammed the goblet upside down on the table. The elves then realise what was going on. Thranduil had just challenged her to a drinking duel.

The elves cleared the table and they swapped seats so Ailrien and Thranduil were directly across from each other. They got their goblets and filled them up again, this time with a stronger wine. Everything was silent and almost at the exact same time they started gulping down goblet after goblet after goblet. After every mouth full Ailrien took, she started to feel dizzier and after the sixth goblet she slammed it down onto the table with still a couple mouthful in the bottom. Thranduil, realising his feat, leapt to his feet and stood on the table, causing everyone to cheer. Thranduil grabbed her hand and pulled her up on the table as well, holding her hand high in the air, almost lifting her of her feet and said,

"_I declare, Ailrien, daughter of Awilran, the best female drinker in Middle Earth that I have ever met!" _When the king let go of her hand, Legolas helped the drunk elf maiden of the table.

Soon, the elves had changed the subject and where now discussing what animal they would be, if not elf. Thranduil said he would be a deer, Legolas a horse, Mitrith would be an eagle, Lenthindir and Marius decided on wolf, Gollendir a mouse. At this everyone laughed and he calmly stated that mice live peaceful lives and are not bothered by what happens around them. Most of them continued to laugh about the absurd idea but Ailrien, although she did not say it, thought that she would much rather be a mouse rather than a wolf or a deer. As they continued to talk, Ailrien's eyes began to droop and soon she was unable to keep them open and drifted off to sleep at the royal dinner table.

When she awoke, she saw that she was in her room. Ailrien sat bolt upright, wondering how she had gotten there, but then she saw a note next to her pillow.

_My dear friend Ailrien,_

_Thankyou so much for coming last night, it really did mean a lot. I had a great time and my father thinks you are lovely. We were all however, very shocked to see you have fallen asleep, we thought you were sick. I started to panic, but father told me that elves do fall asleep if under the influence of wine (he says that some of the servants have been seen sleeping in the wine cellar). Not to worry though, as you can tell I did not want to leave you there, nor did I want to wake you so I carried you back to your room after asking your friend, Lilieth I think her name is, who was wondering around alone. I do hope you enjoyed your time as much as I did, _

_Legolas_

Ailrien chuckled at the idea of Legolas panicking over her, and, deciding that sleep was not so bad, lay her head back down on her pillow and rested.

**Hi guys! I hope you like Ailrien's chapter :D I beg that someone will review! (literally, I'm on my hands and knees here!) any ways, if there are any mistakes then please let me know :),**

**Ranger's Secret**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hey guys! I am sososoooo sorry for the late update D: but, you see, I am on holidays and I am to busy practising archery and training horses so i have not had to write! but being the awesome little hobbit I am, I decided to make this chapter extra long :D anyways, I hope you all enjoy it!**

**PS! I would love reviews! :D**

Chapter 4

Sannia and Belethorn has been travelling for almost five months now and supplies where running dangerously low. The only things they had now where dried deer meat and barely any water. Sannia, although she was hungrier than usual and has had barely any sleep, she has managed to keep a positive outlook on life. She is happy that she no longer has to live with her father in that injudicious city. Belethorn was also faring quite well, even though he did miss his friends and his brother, he was happy that he was finally out with his sister. Their horses have also seemingly enjoyed the trip. Every night they were let go to eat grass and in the morning when they were called upon, they would come cantering up from their night adventure and in the day, they got the chance to stretch their legs. Sometimes, the siblings would race along the grassy plains of middle earth or through the forest, jumping over logs and laughing in the rushing wind. Fender was, indeed, faster than Gem but it was not by much. On this particular day however, they did not race. Belethorn was making sure they were going the right way.

"Remind me again brother, why our pace is so painstakingly slow?" Sannia asked, as she was braiding gems long, thick mane out of boredom.

"If you wish to find this village, we must make sure that we go the right way," he said sighing. He loved his sister, but she was never one for listening.

"I understand that brother, but really, is there no road that we can take?"

"Not one that came from our direction," he replied, "Now please sister, be patient!" Sannia fell silent and continued to braid Gem's main. They travelled for the better half the day and it was starting to get darker. Fog started flooding through the valley they were in and the siblings were, quite frankly, getting desperate. Finally, Belethorn spotted smoke rising in the sky. Sannia, being naïve in the ways of the world, was not sure whether this was good or bad. Judging by the look on Belethorn's face this was not good. Without warning, he squeezed Fender into a gallop and Sannia was not far behind.

"What is the meaning of this?" Sannia asked, but Belethorn just looked straight ahead, looking more worried than she had ever seen him. When they arrived at the village, or what was left of it, they were lost for words. The little village Emyn Muil was completely burned to the ground, which was also littered with bodies of men, women and children, arrows protruding from their cold, limp bodies. Sannia, who had never seen such a sight, covered her mouth in shock and dismounted. Belethorn absentmindedly did the same and wrapped an arm around his sister, rubbing her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. _Breath, Sannia, calm yourself. Clear your mind, is there anything we can use here?_ Sannia thought to herself as she slowly lowered her hand and stepped away from her brother. She looked straight ahead and stepped over the bodies as if they were logs. Belethorn, to say the least was impressed that his younger sister had not broken down yet and was even more impressed to see her walk further into the village. He bent down and pulled out an arrow of a woman who was lying face down in the dirt and examined it. He soon dropped it however as if it had burnt him.

"Sannia, this was an orc attack, we really should leave," he said. For anyone else he would not need to tell them that orcs had done this, but seeing as his sister did not know anything to this extent of the outside world, he did not want to take any chances.

"I'm not leaving until I have found some form of supplies," She said and Belethorn, no matter how much he wanted to argue, had to face the facts that they were indeed, dangerously low on supplies and replied sternly,

"Alright, but let us make it quick." Sannia nodded and headed off into the village. She reached a small house with a sign out the front that had supposedly had writing on it but had been burned off the destroying flames. She walked in side and saw little jars of things such as ointments, creams and dried herbs, most likely used for healing. She hastily grabbed as many things she could and shoved them into her bag. It didn't fit too well but she decided that she could rearrange it all once they had left the village and were in somewhat safer grounds. She was about to leave when she heard movement behind her. She spun around just in time to see an orc, hunched over and vile looking that leapt towards her. She was knocked to the ground and everything happened so quickly. The orc raised a knife up above her and was about to finish her of before and unknown anger rose within her. _No one, will EVER kill me!_ She thought and with that she raised her own knife and cut of the orc's hand. It roared in pain and leapt back, giving her a chance to attack. Now do not misunderstand, Sannia does not know how to fight, she has no form and no proper skill, but she does have a skill of her own. Anger. This has been a hidden curse/talent that has never truly been uncovered. When Sannia gets angry, it's either because she is losing in something or because someone she cares about very much is in danger. She does not get angry often, but when she does, it's as if she is another person. Her eyes glint red and she has a wild look about her. She fights feral and can hardly tell the difference between friend of foe, although this may seem like a curse, it is also a gift, for it had just saved her life.

She was now perched on top of the wicked creature stabbing its face repetitively. That was until her brother came in. he had heard the orc's cry and his sister's roar and sprinted through the village. What he found shocked him. She rose to her feet, blood splattered across her face, arm and chest and she looked wild. He then looked down to the mutated orc who was lying on the ground, his face half ripped open.

"I have got medicine," she said darkly, stepping past Belethorn and continued, "We should continue, brother." As they walked out of the house the fog had grown thicker and, in Belethorn's, this made him feel, not intimidated, but wary, of his sister. She looked like she was grown up a savage, with her wild, blonde hair, sticking to her blood spattered face. They mounted up and without another glance back, cantered of into the mist.

When it was finally dark, they stopped to set up camp under a thick canopy of trees. They let the horses loose to graze and sat themselves down on the ground. It was then, once Sannia had calmed down, she remembered how hungry she was. She let out a sigh and tried to ignore her growing hunger. She noticed that Belethorn was digging through his pack but paid no heed to him, until she felt something hit her in the head. It fell and landed in her lap and at first she thought it was coal. She picked it up and almost immediately realised that it was,

"Bread!"

"It sure is, I found loads in a bakery, and most of it was not edible. The outside is burnt, but the inside should be alright," he said moving over to sit across from his sister. She slowly ripped her bread apart and let out a laugh of joy when she saw the wheat goodness inside the chard crust. She took a large bite out of it and, no matter how smoky and burnt it was, the bread seemed to melt in her mouth. As they ate, Belethorn ripped of a small piece, threw it in the air and caught it in his mouth. He looked at this sister, smirking and she cocked an eyebrow. She mimicked his actions, this time threw it higher and caught it easily. Belethorn laughed and ripped of another piece and said,

"Alright, see if you can catch this one," and threw it high in the air towards Sannia who had to dive to the side to catch it. "You can't have caught that!" he said shocked and she opened her mouth, showing a half chewed piece of bread.

"THEE!?" she cried childishly, her mouth still open so it sounded like she had a lisp. Her brother laughed and playfully pushed her over causing her to laugh.

"Yes I can see! Close your mouth, you look like a goblin!" he laughed earning him a slap on his arm. She lay down on the ground, using her saddle as a pillow, and kept happily munching away at her bread, thinking about today's events. For some reason, the orc had not bothered her and killing it almost seemed joyful, she felt as though it deserved everything it got. She smirked to herself, if only her father had seen her, it would have made him think twice about how he had treated her. Belethorn interrupted her line of thoughts.

"Where do you think we will end up?" he asked, lying on his side, pushing himself up on his elbow.

"I don't know, where ever we want to I guess, I actually haven't thought about it to be honest,"

"I still can't believe we left without so much as a plan," He said sighing and continued, "well, where _do_ you want to end up?"

"I don't know, somewhere north I guess," she shrugged.

"Well that's a better plan than we started off with, care to expand?" He asked sounding slightly exasperated.

"I _said_ I don't know," she replied, sounding equally incensed as her brother. Belethorn shook his head and she let out a sigh and asked, "What about you?"

"I don't know sister, I really don't know," and with that he rolled onto his side and fell asleep, leaving Sannia to take first watch.

Sannia sat cross-legged next to her brother. She did not mind having to take first watch, she found it peaceful just staring into the darkness, listening to the forest critters. This night however it was different, the night was completely soundless. This made Sannia slightly uneasy so she started to hum. It was not a specific tune, it was more or less, random notes jumbled together to form a clam melody. She hummed her way into the night and slowly began to feel a bit more comfortable with the abnormal silence.

She sat awake for a little while longer humming until she felt her eyes beginning to droop and her head was nodding in and out of sleep. She got up sluggishly and kicked her brother lightly in the back. He snorted a bit but did not wake up. She stared at her brother, not in the mood for his laziness and bent down next to him. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him vigorously and still he did not wake. She stood back up and, without a thought of regret, jumped up in the air, curled up in a ball and landed heavily on top of her peacefully sleeping brother. He woke with a start and Sannia quickly rolled of, lying on her side, pretending to be asleep. He of course did not fall for it, who would? Yet he let her lie there and took over the watch, massaging the leg that his sister had landed on. Sannia smiled to herself as she heard her brother grumbling to himself as she fell into a blissful night's sleep.

It felt as though she had just closed her eyes for a second when she was shaken awake by her brother who covered her mouth with his hand, preventing her from asking what was going on. She heard shrieks and taunting voices in the distance and felt the blood in her body boil. She pushed his hand away regardless and hissed,

"_What is going on?"_

"_Orcs," _he whispered hastily and Sannia's eyes widened. He grabbed his sister's pack and chucked it to her. She caught it and threw it over her shoulder and Belethorn did the same.

"How will we call the horses without getting noticed?" she asked

"We won't," he replied and he gave her a knowing look. He let out a low whistle and the shrieks stopped. Suddenly, the ground began to vibrate and Sannia was certain that is was the orcs. She was about to pull out her sword when she realised that is was Gem and Fender. Sannia let out a sigh of relief and ran towards her horse who nuzzled her gently. All of a sudden, the ground began to tremble again, more violently this time and she knew it was what she dreaded. Orcs. She looked to her brother who leapt onto Fender bareback and without bridle. She did the same and it was just in the nick of time, because the orcs were crashing through the forest towards them.

"GO!" Belethorn yelled but Sannia did not need telling twice. They both squeezed their horses into a gallop and Sannia had to cling onto Gem's mane when she literally jumped into a mad dash for safety. Sannia had never ridden bareback and this was definitely and unpleasant experience to say the least. Fearing that she would fall off at any moment, she only vaguely heard the infuriated cries of the orcs and, soon enough they were tailing them through the wood. Sannia could barely see the forest floor in front of her, she just trusted Gem with her life. How long they galloped for, she does not know, she only knows that when she lost them, they were out of the forest and had arrived at a little stream. Once they were sure they had lost the orcs, the tired siblings dismounted of their panting horses and all of them rushed to the water to drink. The travellers gulped down the water gratefully, the cool water soothing their dry throats. Sannia stood up and removed her jacket, boots and over garments and leapt into the water. It wasn't deep, for which Sannia was very grateful for. The water only reached a bit under her rib cage and flowed past her gently. She dunked her head and scrubbed her blood mated hair. When she was satisfied with her cleanliness, she pulled her fingers through her hair one last time and came up to the surface.

"Blimey sister, please do not tell me you would strip your clothes like this in front of anyone," He asked shocked at his sister's lack of modesty.

"As you really should have noticed, I am not one for modesty, especially when it is just my undergarments! Honestly, I'm practically just as clad as I was before," she reasoned and he snorted.

"What you are wearing is not the equivalent to _that!"_ He said, pointing at the pile of clothes that see had shed and left in a pile. She looked at the clothes sheepishly and then down at her dripping wet self. She did not say anything and just ANZACS shuffled her feet, kicking the dirt. Belethorn laughed at his sisters actions,

"Do not fret sister, I am just teasing you," she looked up as him and grinned devilishly. His grin faded and in a split second, he knew what she was going to do. She leapt towards him and tried to tackle him but he was too quick. He had already jumped to his feet and stepped to the side and he felt the air of his sister as the fell past him. Belethorn threw his head back in laughter at the sight of his sister lying in the ground. She growled and grabbed his ankle and yanked it bringing him to the ground with a muffled _thump_. Now it was Sannia's turn to laugh and he gave her a half-hearted frown before leaping on top of her, pinning her down beneath his weight and tickled her. She let out a shriek of laughter and started squirming uncontrollably.

"_Belethorn stop! You going to - death of meeeee!" _She shrieked with laughter and was unable to speak properly because she was laughing to hard. He laughed at her feeble attempts to escape and, eventually, freed her. She was in tears from laughter and, when she had regained energy, slapped her brother meagerly. This, much to her disappointment, made him laugh harder and she crossed her arms over her chest and glared sourly into the night. Once Belethorn had managed to compose himself again, he stood up and said,

"We should probably keep moving to make sure we don't run by that pack of orcs again," At the mention of orcs Sannia tensed and got to her feet. As much as she wanted to rest and let Gem have a sleep, she agreed with her brother. She nodded and let out a low whistle for Gem. She came walking up, her head stretched low and was in general very relaxed after her rest.

"Sorry, girl, we need to keep going," she whispered to Gem. She gathered her pack and watched as her brother swings up with surprising ease. She tries to do the same, but fail miserably.

"Having a bit of trouble there?" Belethorn chuckled and Sannia glared at him.

"For your information, _I _did this before when we were escaping from the orcs," she said with her nose in the air.

"That, my dear friend, is the power of adrenaline," he said and dismounted, "Let me help,"

"_I can do it!_" She said rejecting him, "And besides Gem is at least two hands taller than Fender, I makes it harder!" she retorted sharply. Belethorn pushed her out of the way and leapt up onto Gem in the same fashion he had done earlier on Fender. Sannia let out an undignified _humph_ and folded her arms over her chest. Belethorn got off and held out his hand and offered to give her a leg up which she gratefully accepted. He went back over to mount Fender.

As they rode, Sannia felt a little uneasy riding along with no tack whatsoever. This however, did not mean that she was a bad rider, in fact, she was probably one of the better riders in Rohan and perhaps even better than almost all female women in Middle earth. But no matter how much she loved riding bareback, she felt somewhat vulnerable without the comfort of rope between her fingers. She expressed her feelings to Belethorn who chucked her a spare set of reins that he had in his pack.

"Use this as a neck rope, if it makes you feel any better," he explained when he laid notice to her blank face. She nodded and smiled gratefully and tied the rope loosely around Gems neck.

As they cantered through the plains, Sannia began to worry about the horses. They had been moving nonstop throughout the night and into the early morning hours.

"Should the horses not get a rest soon? They have been cantering for hours now," she asked.

"Blimey sister, were where you raised, in a cave? These are horses of Rohan, Valar has made them invincible to this sort or treatment, and besides, this is probably good for them," He said looking over at his sister who was keeping pace beside him. _He is right_ she thought looking down at Gem, _she is loving this_. And indeed she was. Her ears were perked forward and her eyes were dancing with glee, if horses could grin, her smile would be dazzling. Gem chucked her head in the air and, as though she had heard Sannia's thoughts, let out a whinny which could easily have been mistaken for laughter. Sannia threw her head back and laughed, her hair whipping around her face, flowing in the wind. She gave the smallest little squeeze with her legs sending Gem into an all mighty gallop. Gem kicked out her hind legs in elation and the two raced through the wind, both horse and human silently agreeing that this had got to be the best feeling ever. She slowed down to trot in a large circle, just to cool off and wait for Belethorn. She waited and waited but no Belethorn came. Merely assuming that he was just taking his time she leapt of and sat down in the long green grass. As she waited, she started to grow worried and nervously started to pace back and forwards and every now and then, looked out onto the horizon, expecting to see her brother but to no avail.

"I need to find him," She whispered to mainly herself and petted Gem's forelock. She stood beside her horse and looked at her high back. _I can't get up there!_ She mentally screamed to herself. She placed one hand on her wither and readied herself to jump up. She tried multiple times but to no success. Gem just stood there and ate patiently whilst Sannia stood there trying to figure it out. She thought about how her brother had done it and tried to memorize it to herself. When she was confident that she knew exactly how to do it she took on deep breath and flung her leg over Gem. By leg, that means her whole body. For a split second she smiled at her achievement but realised too soon that she was flying well over Gem. She let out a surprised cry and landed with a painful thump on the other side of her horse. Gem looked up from eating and looked confused at Sannia who was lying on the ground next to her groaning painfully. Sannia got up and hobbled over to Gem who started to take some interest in what her master was doing.

"What would Belethorn say," she mused to herself and Belethorn's voice echoed in her head, _that my dear friend, it the power of adrenaline._

"Adrenaline! Of course," She exclaimed snapping her fingers in realisation. She started to fill her mind with everything that had happened as of late. The orc in the village, the attack, and the village itself. With one great burst of energy, she flung up onto Gem's back. This was however, non to gracefully however. She was clinging on with her arm and leg hooked over Gem's back, trying to worm her way up. Soon she was atop of her steed once more and a grin was tugging at her mouth. She then remembered what she had to do again. _Find Belethorn. _She clicked Gem into a walk and started off on her journey. She only walked for a bit until she found herself upon a hill, one that she had galloped up earlier. From here she could see everything, including the stream in the distance where she had come from. Her eyes scanned the surroundings but she saw no sign of her brother. She started to become extremely worried now and tried to squeeze Gem into a trot, but she did not move. Her muscles where tense and Sannia could have sworn she felt Gem quiver. Rohan horses were not known for getting scared and if they did, they had good reason to. She looked around to try and spot what had her horse rippling with fear. She then heard a fearsome howl of a warg close by and even closer, an all mighty roar of an animal she did not recognise. Suddenly, Gem reared on her hind quarters unexpectedly and Sannia who was not prepared for it, fell of her and was sent tumbling the other side of the steep hill.

Sannia tumbled down the rocky hill, hearing some part of her _crack_ in ways it should not. After what felt like ages but in reality was no time at all, she stopped at the foot of not only the hill, but of a ginormous bear. Sannia, who was to beat to even attempt to run, let out a scream of terror. The bear lowered itself to all four and stalked towards her snarling. She tried to back away, trying to get to her feet but felt that her leg would not move and moving it made her cry out in agony. Tears where flowing freely from her face now and her chest heaved painfully as she breathed in great gasps of air.

"_GET AWAY FROM ME!" _she screamed as the bear rose its paw, ready to strike. It was then she remembered her sword. She unsheathed it and held it weakly in her hands. She knew that she could not do anything with it considering she was unable to get to her feet let alone hold it in her shaking hands. The bear roared and hit the blade out of her grasp. The creature struck again and this time his target was her. The air was pushed from her and managed to let out a whimper as was shot through the air and landed in a painful heap, clothes no drenched in blood. Her vision was fogy and therefor did not believe what she saw. It looked as though the bear was transforming from bear to man. Sannia was too lost in pain to think of the bazar sight and fell into darkness.

Sannia did not wake for another week and Beorn had been busy tending to her wounds. Even though it was him who had caused them, he knows that he had no control then. He had removed her tunic and under garments to tend to her torso and part of her neck. He cringed slightly at the damage he had caused but never the less, applied a healing crème he had made from honey. The night she was injured, his claws had ripped straight through her clothes and almost tor her to pieces and it was a miracle that she had even survived. However she was healing nicely and for that, Beorn was grateful. Once he had dressed the wounds, he wrapped her torso with a cloth he had cleaned the morning before. He worked gently when he wrapped up the small, frail body so as not to injure her further. Beorn had not only tended to her injuries but had fed her water by lifting her head up and using a spoon to pour it down her throat. On this particular morning, he had done the same as he always had. He fed his animals and let them out to wonder, tended to his bees, ate breakfast and drank milk by the plenty. The difference being that this morning, he was half way through his third jug of milk when he heard a quiet moan and then a series of splutters and coughs. He quickly placed down his milk on the table top and rushed over to Sannia who was shaking violently. He gently placed his hand on her forehead and felt that she had a burning fever. He pulled back his hand and grabbed a bowl of hot steaming broth that he had had for breakfast and a small (compared to him) tea spoon and sat next to her. She had opened her eyes and stared at him dazed but warily none the less. He lifted her head gently and started to feed her the steamy warm broth. She accepted gratefully but only managed to down a mouthful before emptying her stomach contents onto the floor. She was shaking violently now and lowered her head onto her pillow. Beorn sighed but he had guessed that this would happen. He went over to a set of shelves and grabbed some dried herbs which he made her eat. Sannia crinkled her nose in disgust but swallowed it never the less. Almost instantly her fever started to subside and so did the pain, but not by much.

"Th-tha-th-tha-y-," Sannia stuttered in her feeble attempt to thank him for his gracious help.

"Do no strain yourself young one, you need food and rest," he said quietly.

"b-Bear!" she cried, fear penetrating her eyes. Beorn sighed. He knew this girl was clever and no matter how mentally unstable she was at the time she of course was going to recognise him.

"There is a lot that I need to tell you," he said sitting himself down on a ginormous chair beside her bed and started, "I am what you call a skin changer. A skin changer such as myself can change form from human to bear or rather, change skin. Unfortunately, I am not entirely able to control my actions when I am transformed. I do apologise for my actions which have caused you so much pain, but you must understand that I don't have control over my rash actions," he explained and Sannia did something that Beorn least expected her to do. She mustered all her energy and sat up, leant over and hugged him. She hissed through her teeth at the pain and hastily laid back onto her bed.

"You have shown nothing but kindness to me and you have seen to my wounds, of-of course I will for-forgive you," she said smiling. She coughed and quickly stopped smiling too. Beorn was touched, truly. After all his kin died, no one had ever been to kind and courteous towards him. He felt a great rush of affection towards this girl and he smiled back at her.

"I still do not know your name kind one, what is your name?" he asked grabbing his milk and taking a long swig.

"Sa-Sannia, and yours?" she inquired curiously.

"Beorn," he said smiling warmly down at Sannia.

"Thank y-y-you," she said falling asleep but mumbled under her breath just loud enough for Beorn to hear her, "Beorn." Beorn smiled and petted her hair gently and Sannia smiled in her sleep.

When she woke again a few hours later, she found that Beorn was not there. She tried to twist her head but found that it hurt too much. She could, however see a window across the room allowing the silver rays of moon light to flood through the window. Sannia just lay there in a haze of thoughts. She was first thinking about Beorn and how kind he is. Thoughts then lead to her brother and her beloved Gem. She felt tears growing in her eyes and she had no energy to stop them. She wept and wept until it felt like she had no tears left to cry. When she finally stopped crying her ribs hurt more than ever and she had exhausted herself to the max and fell yet again into a reckless slumber.

Beorn arrived back to his house just after the sun scraped the horizon. When he shut the door behind him, he went to see how his friend was doing and what he saw made his heart ache. Her tired face was printed with worry and her cheeks were blotchy and red. It was truly a sad sight to see her in such a mangled state. He was about to walk away too drink some milk when he heard a soft voice behind him.

"….Gemm-ge…gem. Beorn, were? We-were is she?" she asked still falling in and out of consciousness.

"It's all right young one, Gem as I believe she told me her name was, is well, she is out grazing with the other horses," he explained smiling about the fact that this young girl cares so much for her horse when many others would not.

"Thankyou," she faintly smiled that quickly faded, "brother?" Beorn's smile faded as well and raked his mind for any sight of a man. _There was one boy, but he was near the Mirkwood._

"There was one boy," he started and at this Sannia's eye lids fluttered open and she started to look slightly hopeful, "he was not far from the Mirkwood borders, if he went into that forest, he will most likely not return." He finished solemnly. Sannia's face fell and what colour she had in her face drained. However, she felt less downhearted than she looked. _Belethorn is strong, he is a warrior and a smart one at that! He wouldn't have gone in there, would he?_

Whilst Sannia pondered, Beorn heated some broth for her. Hopefully she was well enough so she would be able to hold the contents of her stomach. He watched as the food he had prepared earlier started to steam and scooped it into a wooden bowl. Taking a small spoon and placing it in the bowl and was about to start towards her when a sudden thought struck him like lighting. He placed the bowl back down and headed towards a shelf where his healing herbs and remedies stood. He carefully searched through it, looking for one particular thing that he had completely forgotten about. Then he found it. A small faded purple pouch tied up with twine. He opened it to make sure it was the right one and was relieved to see a white, powdery, pollen. This pollen was only found in his garden and was only known to him. He called it quiescent pollen as it had the ability to make a body completely immobile and dormant within seconds. When Beorn had first discovered this, he thought it evil, but when one of his ponies became immensely ill, he fed the stallion a pinch of it not only causing him to fall asleep, but heeled him within days. Beorn took as small pinch of it and strode it into the broth. He mixed it around until it was blended in properly and, once he had put back on the shelf, he walked over to Sannia. He placed down the bowl potage on the window sill that was behind the girl and placed his hand ever so gently under her back. She whimpered and hissed in protest but knew that it would be a futile attempt to drink the broth whilst lying down. Once she was as comfortable as she could get, Beorn placed the spoon to her lips and she drank. It hurt at first, but found that the warm soup soothed her dry throat that had been burnt from her stomach acids. Spoon full after spoon full she gulped down and with each one she felt herself growing more tired. Her body was going numb and soon she could not feel her arms nor her legs but she kept eating. After only another mouthful, he felt her go limp in his hands, her chest heaving as she slept, knowing that she would most likely not wake for quite some time.

**Ok, I know it ended kind of crapily (is that even a word?) but i didn't know how to end it haha oh, if i kept writing i would not have anything for Sannia's next chapter! either way, hope you all liked it :D**

**Review? please?**


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